Grantham


Grantham is an English town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. It straddles the London–Edinburgh East Coast Main Line and the River Witham and is bounded to the west by the A1 north–south trunk road. It lies about south of the county town, Lincoln, and east of Nottingham. The population in 2016 was put at 44,580. Grantham is known as the birthplace of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for educating Isaac Newton at the King's School, as the birthplace of the UK's first female police officer, Edith Smith in 1914, and for making the UK's first running diesel engine in 1892 and tractor in 1896. Thomas Paine worked there as an excise officer in the 1790s.

History

Grantham lies close to the ancient Old North Road. It was the scene in 1643 of Oliver Cromwell's first win over Royalists during the English Civil War, at Gonerby Moor.

Origin

The origin of "Grantham" is uncertain, although the name is said probably to be Old English "Granta+ham", meaning "Granta's homestead". It appeared as early as 1086 in the Domesday Book in its present form of Grantham, but was also recorded variously as Grandham, Granham and Graham. The place name element grand could possibly mean "gravel".
The name of the town is the origin of the Scottish surname, now often used as a given name, Graham.

Prehistory

Late neolithic vessels from a burial were found at Little Gonerby, in the north of the town, in 1875. A number of flint blades have been found, including from near Welham Street to the south-east of the town centre and from near Barrowby where a macehead has also been found. At Little Gonerby a neolithic settlement site was discovered with finds of pottery and flints.
There have been a number of finds of flint and stone tools including palaeolithic hand-axes, from the Cherry Orchard Estate, to the north-east of the town centre, and from near North Lodge on the hill top south of Barrowby. Mesolithic flints have also been recovered from the Cherry Orchard Estate as well as from sites to the west of Great Gonerby
To the north-east of the town centre a Bronze Age bucket and urn cemetery, with cremation burials and ploughed-out barrows, has been recorded. Bronze Age flint scatters have also been found in several places, particularly on the higher ground near Barrowby. At Saltersford a Bronze Age ingot and a rapier were found. There are also several ring ditches on the higher ground above Saltersford.
According to the Chronicles of Raphael Holinshed, Gorbonianus, a legendary King of the Britons built Grantham between 292 and 282 BC.
, now housed at the Yale Center for British Art

Middle Ages

The Domesday account notes Queen Edith having 12 carucates to the geld, with no arable land outside the village. She had a hall, two carucates and land for three ploughs without geld, and 111 burgesses. Ivo had one church and four mills rendering 12 shillings, and eight acres of meadow without geld. The lands of Bishop Osmond were described: "In Londonthorpe ... is land for two ploughs. This land belongs to the church of Grantham. In Spittlegate, St Wulfram of Grantham has half a carucate of land to the geld. In Great Gonerby, St Wulfram of Grantham has 1 carucate of land. There is land for twelve oxen."
On 4 December 1290, the funeral cortège of Eleanor of Castile, accompanied by her husband King Edward I, stopped at Grantham on its way from Lincoln to Westminster Abbey. An Eleanor Cross was later erected in the town, although its precise location has not been identified.
In 1363 "The Castles, Manors and towns of Stamford and Grantham" were granted to Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, and fifth son of Edward III of England. The question has been raised as to whether Grantham House was the site of a castle, however, no such site has been reliably identified. The street name "Castlegate" cannot be traced further back than the 17th century. There are references to a Hospital in Grantham as early as the 1330s.
Grantham received its Charter of Incorporation in 1463.

19th and 20th centuries

The town developed when the railway came to the town. The Nottingham Line arrived first in 1850, then the London line – the Towns Line from Peterborough to Retford – arrived in 1852. The Boston, Sleaford and Midland Counties Railway arrived in 1857.
The town received gas lighting in 1833. The corporation became a borough council in 1835. Little Gonerby and Spittlegate were added to the borough in 1879. The town had been in the wapentake of Loveden, and the town included three townships of Manthorpe with Little Gonerby, Harrowby, and Spittlegate with Houghton and Walton.
Grantham Golf Club was founded in 1894. The club continued until the onset of the Second World War.
Until the 1970s the housing estates west of the town centre were green fields. Green Hill, on the A52, was literally a green hill. In July 1975 the National Association of Ratepayers' Action Groups was formed in Grantham by John Wilks, its Chairman, being a forerunner of the TaxPayers' Alliance.

Military history

The town has a long military history dating back to the completion of the Old Barracks in 1858.

Dambusters

During the Dambuster Raids Royal Air Force missions in May 1943, the RAF Bomber Command's No. 5 Group and the operation HQ was in St Vincents, a building which was later owned by Aveling-Barford and housed a district council planning department. It was built by Richard Hornsby in 1865, lived in by Richard Hornsby's son, and is now a private house. In 1944, this was the headquarters for the USAAF's Ninth Air Force's IX Troop Carrier Command, being known as Grantham Lodge.

RAF Spitalgate

trained pilots during both world wars, initially as a Royal Flying Corps establishment. It was the first military airfield in Lincolnshire. It has never been an operational fighter or bomber base; although it did see operational service during the 1943 invasion of Europe as a base for American and Polish gliders and parachutists. It officially closed in 1974. The Women's Royal Air Force had been there from 1960 until closure., and moved to RAF Hereford.

RAF Regiment

The RAF Regiment was formed just north-east of the town in parts of Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without during December 1941 with its headquarters at RAF Belton Park which is recognised as the birthplace of the Corps. The Belton Park estate had been the training centre for the Machine Gun Corps from November 1915.
The RAF Regiment grew to in excess of 66,000 personnel, and during training were housed at RAF Belton Park, which was the Regiment's first depot, RAF Folkingham and RAF North Witham.

Women's police force

Grantham was the first place after London to recruit and train women police officers. It was the first provincial force to ask the newly formed Corps of Women's Police Volunteers to supply them with occasional policewomen, recognising them as useful for dealing with women and juveniles. In December 1914 Miss Damer Dawson, the Chief of the Corps, came to Grantham to supervise the preliminary work of the women police. The officers stationed there were Miss Allen and Miss Harburn. In 1915, Grantham magistrates swore in Edith Smith, making her the first policewoman in Britain with full powers of arrest.

Industrial history

Richard Hornsby & Sons

and Richard Seaman founded Seaman & Hornsby, Iron Founders and Millwrights, at Spittlegate in Grantham in 1810. The company was renamed Richard Hornsby & Sons when Seaman retired in 1828. Products included ploughs and seed drills.
From 1840 until 1906 the company built steam engines. Thereafter production shifted to oil, petrol and gas engines. The works employed 378 men in 1878 and 3,500 in 1914.
In 1905 Richard Hornsby & Sons invented a caterpillar track for a machine using Hornsby's oil engines; these engines were developed by Yorkshireman Herbert Akroyd Stuart, from which compression-ignition principle the diesel engine evolved, being manufactured in Grantham from 8 July 1892. Although these engines were not wholly compression-ignition derived, later in 1892 a prototype high-pressure version was built at Hornsby's, developed by Thomas Henry Barton OBE – later to be the founder of Nottingham's Barton Transport, whereby ignition was achieved solely through compression; it ran continuously for six hours, being the first known diesel engine. In the town, Hornsby's built Elsham House and the Shirley Croft. Their site on Houghton Road was bought from Lord Dysart.

Barford's

The agricultural engine and steamroller manufacturer Aveling and Porter of Rochester, Kent, merged with Barford & Perkins of Peterborough to become Aveling-Barford Ltd in 1934, largely due to financial help from Ruston & Hornsby, when both companies had entered into administration. The new company took a former site of Hornsbys, naming it the 'Invicta' works, from the motto on the coat of arms of Kent, and translates as 'unconquered'; all Aveling & Porter machinery was brought from Kent by rail.

BMARC

British Manufacture and Research Company, on Springfield Road, made munitions, notably the Hispano cannon for the Spitfire and Hurricane from 1937 onwards. It was owned by the Swiss company Oerlikon from 1971 until 1988, becoming part of Astra Holdings plc. The company was bought by British Aerospace in 1992, who afterwards closed the site which has now been developed as a housing estate. The site's former offices are now business units for the Springfield Business Centre. Grantham's register office was moved there in 2007.

Former developments

In 1968 Reads of Liverpool built a canning factory on Springfield Road. It made cans for Melton Mowbray, becoming American Can, then Pechiney in 1988, then as Impress it was closed in 2006, demolished in 2007 and is now a housing estate. Ransome & Marles Bearing had a ball bearing factory in the town until 1957, when production was moved to Newark.
Mowbray and Co Ltd, a brewery, was bought by JW Green of Luton. It was founded in September 1828 and became a public company in 1880. It closed in 1967.

Governance

Grantham once lay within the ancient Winnibriggs and Threo wapentake in the Soke of Grantham in the Parts of Kesteven.
Politically the town is part of the Grantham and Stamford constituency and is represented in Parliament by Conservative Party Member of Parliament Gareth Davies who was elected at the 12 December 2019 general election.
Two of Grantham's MPs in recent years have been Secretary of State for Agriculture.
Before 1974, the local area was represented by Grantham Borough Council, based at Grantham Guildhall on St Peters Hill, and West Kesteven Rural District, based on Sandon Close. The local authority is now South Kesteven District Council.
The Grantham Charter Trustees have responsibility for the ceremonial functions remaining from the former Grantham Borough Council. These include civic ceremonies, annual commemorative events, hosting official visits and maintaining the town's regalia. The Charter Trustees consist of the Grantham District Councillors on South Kesteven District Council and two members of the Charter Trustees are elected annually to become the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Grantham.
The 2016 population, put at 44,580, divides by electoral ward into Belmont 4,900; Grantham Arnoldfield 4,666, Grantham Barrowby Gate 5,195, Grantham Earlsfield 6,557, Grantham Harrowby 4,770, Grantham St Vincent's 7,637, Grantham St Wulfram's 5,461, and Grantham Springfield 5,394.

Geography

The town boundary crosses the A1 to the west at the Dysart Road bridge. North of there it lies to the east of the A1. It crosses the B1174 at Gonerby Hill. All of the Manthorpe estate is a part of the town, but the Manthorpe village and the church are part of Belton and Manthorpe civil parish. The boundary then follows Green Lane, bordering the civil parish of Harrowby. It passes to the west of Harrowby Hall and over Hall's Hill. It then crosses the A52 at the start of Somerby Hill, borders Little Ponton, and crosses the B1174 at the southern end of the Spittlegate Level Industrial Estate.
According to Super Output Area data from the ONS, the least socially deprived area in Lincolnshire is the ward of Stamford St John's; Grantham's least deprived ward is in the north-east of the town near the former Central School.

Religion

Grantham has a variety of churches of different denominations. The main local landmark is the parish church of St Wulfram's, which has the sixth highest spire among English churches at. It is the second tallest church in Lincolnshire, after St James' Church in Louth. It is also home to England's first public library, dating from 1598, when Francis Trigge, rector of Welbourn, gave £100 for a small chained library of books for the clergy and literate laity of Grantham. Two hundred and fifty of the original volumes remain and are kept in a small room above the South Porch. From October 1974 the church was permanently floodlit at night.
The Anglican church in the New Somerby district, dedicated to St Anne and seating about 350, was erected as a mission church in 1884 and built of iron. A mission church, dedicated to St Saviour and seating about 150, was built of brick in the Little Gonerby district in 1884. The church of St John the Evangelist was built of stone in the Spittlegate district in 1840–41. It seated about 1,100. Today the Deanery of Grantham still includes the churches of St Anne and St John the Evangelist amongst its 18 churches. The suffragan Bishop of Grantham is currently Nicholas Chamberlain; his official residence is in Long Bennington.
The Catholic Church of St Mary the Immaculate is located on North Parade. Grantham Baptist Church is located on Wharf Road. Grantham Christchurch Church is located on Finkin Street. Harrowby Lane Methodist Church dates from the late 1920s. Finkin Street Methodist Church was a Wesleyan Methodist chapel that was built in the 1840s and attended by Margaret Thatcher.
Plans in 2014 to construct an Islamic cultural centre in the town created some controversy, including protests from right-wing groups.

Economy

The food-processing industry, together with Grantham Hospital, is currently the largest Grantham employer. Poultry production company Moy Park is at Gonerby Hill Foot; GW Padley bought the site in 1977 from Wolsey, a former garment manufacturer, and the site is a poultry hatchery.

Hotels

The conference and hospitality industry is well represented in the Grantham area, with the Olde Barn Hotel in Marston, the Q-Hotel group Belton Woods Hotel, the Urban Leisure Hotel and various golf clubs.

''Angel and Royal''

The Angel and Royal, situated in the High Street, is widely regarded as the oldest surviving English inn. The façade of the main building as it appears today was built about 600 years ago, but the site had already been an inn for 200 years. It was originally built as a hostel for the Knights Templar. King John is reputed to have visited with his Royal Court in 1213. The inn was extended in the mid-14th century and again in the 15th century.
A visit by Richard III was the origin of the gold emblem angel holding the King's crown over the original archway. In 1483 Richard held court and it was from the "Chambre de' Roi", that he dispatched a letter bidding for the Great Seal to proclaim the treachery of his cousin, the Duke of Buckingham, leading to the signature of Buckingham's death warrant. Copies of the letter, the original of which is kept by the British Museum, are displayed adjacent to the Richard III lounge and the King's Room Restaurant.
King Charles I made use of the King's Room during his visit in 1633 and Oliver Cromwell also stayed at the Angel after his successful battle near Grantham in 1643. The cellars and foundations of the inn are reputed to date from the 9th century, and are rumoured to be linked by tunnels to both St Wulfram's Church and the town's Market Square. In 1707 the then landlord Michael Solomon died, but left a legacy of 40 shillings a year to pay for the preaching of a sermon, against the evils of drunkenness, for every Mayor.
The prime position of the inn on the Great North Road led to its long history as a coaching inn, which accounts for its characteristic layout, with long courtyard, old stables and entrances to front and rear. In 1800 six inns were listed in Grantham, together with 21 alehouses. The Angel's prosperity declined markedly with the coming of the railways.
By the middle of the 1800s the Angel had also enjoyed the patronage of King George IV. In 1866 the then Prince of Wales visited Grantham, directly leading to the second part of the inn's name. In the early 1920s the word Inn was dropped and the building became a hotel.
After the Second World War, the hotel was purchased by Trust House Hotels, later to become Trust House Forte. It remained with Trust House until a few years ago. Since when there has been a succession of owners, including several brewery companies. In May 2002, the Angel and Royal was purchased by a consortium of local business professionals.

Closures

Brook Street and Hill Avenue sub-post offices were closed in Grantham in 2008 as part of the Post Office Network Change programme. In August 2010 it was confirmed that the Grantham branch of Marks and Spencer would close, with two other Lincolnshire branches in Skegness and Scunthorpe, because of low sales, although a Marks and Spencer Food Hall re-opened within the town in 2014. The closure met with local protests. Discount department store chain Boyes took over the property in 2012. Haldanes, a chain of about 20 supermarkets based on Ruston Road, went into administration.

Nature

Grantham and its surrounding area is home to the peregrine falcons, which roost in the bell tower of St Wulfram's Church, and the "Grantham Gobbler", a heron. Both of these birds are voracious predators.

Amenities for children

Wyndham Park has two children's play areas. There is an open air paddling pool, football pitch and cafe. Dysart Park has a paddling pool and safe play area for children under six, a green for football and a bandstand.
Indoor amenities for children include a swimming pool at the Meres Leisure Centre.
The public library is located in the Sir Isaac Newton Centre. On St Peter's Hill, in the centre of town, stands Grantham Museum and the Guildhall Arts Centre, which includes a 210 seat theatre.
Belton House is a popular National Trust site with events for children, a play area, train rides, picnic area and woodland walk.
for aircraft, and is situated in the north of Waltham near the Sproxton parish boundary

Radio

There is a small FM radio transmitter near the town's bypass on Gorse Lane from which BBC Lincolnshire and Lincs FM broadcast. Most television programmes are broadcast from Waltham, between Grantham and Melton, due to the line of sight to Belmont being blocked by hills to the east of the town.

Gingerbread biscuits

The town is known for gingerbread biscuits which were first made in 1740 by William Eggleston. Eggleston, a baker by trade, was a producer of a biscuit called Grantham Whetstones. Whetstones were a rusk-like dry biscuit enjoyed locally and also by coach drivers who would stop in Grantham to change horses while travelling along the Great North Road. According to folk belief, Egglestone was baking whetstones in his dimly lit kitchen one morning when he mistook one ingredient for another, resulting in a ginger-like biscuit to emerge from the oven. The mistake was a huge success and the biscuit became established as Grantham Gingerbread, known as a white gingerbread because it is not made with molasses or black treacle. This provides a delicate ginger flavour, rich in butter, with a domed top that has a crackled surface. The centre is hollow and resembles a honeycomb.

''Grantham Journal''

Grantham's local newspaper, the Grantham Journal, first went on sale in 1854 as The Grantham Journal of Useful, Instructive and Entertaining Knowledge and Monthly Advertiser, which was shortened to its current name a few years later.

Transport

Rail

is served by the London to Edinburgh East Coast Main Line, and the Nottingham to Skegness Line. Liverpool–Norwich trains also call at Grantham. Electric trains began running in October 1988. Transport links to Nottingham and Peterborough attract some commuters. The town's grammar schools also attract pupils from Radcliffe on Trent, Bingham, Newark and even Retford via the train.

Road

The Great North Road was routed through the town in 1196. The turnpike to the north reached the town in 1725, that to Stamford in 1739, to Nottingham in 1758, and that to Melton in 1780.
The A1 main road from London to Edinburgh runs past the town, which was bypassed in 1962. High Street, until recently, was part of the A52, which runs to Nottingham. Wharf Road and London Road junction is still a busy junction on the A607 for Lincoln. Motorway-style Grantham North Services, at the north end of Grantham bypass, is on a new junction which replaced a roundabout in May 2008.
Grantham, with Stamford, had been earmarked for a bypass before the war in 1939. There were 60 serious accidents a year, with three to four deaths. After the war, on 21 November 1945, there was a meeting at the Guildhall about the proposed bypass of the London-Edinburgh-Thurso trunk road for Grantham and Great Gonerby. This was the first enquiry into a trunk road scheme in the country after the war. The proposed route followed the current line, from Little Ponton to College Farm, except it was to be a single carriageway road.

Waterways

Grantham was once linked to Nottingham by the Grantham Canal. It is possible to walk and cycle along the canal starting from Grantham near the A1/A607 intersection.
The River Witham runs through Grantham. It has a riverside walk linking Dysart Park and Wyndham Park, on which is a view of Spittlegate Mill. The walk passes Inner Street allotment and the rear of Sainsbury's car park, access to which is by a pedestrian bridge at the end of College Street. There are other footbridges with views of the river and its weirs. Swans, ducks and trout are among the wildlife that can be seen along the river.

Education

, a further education college for the district, opened in 1948, for those not attending school sixth forms. It has a satellite site at Sleaford, Sleaford College.

Landmarks

is to the east of the church, and a National Trust property.
Grantham has the country's only "living" public house sign: a beehive of South African bees situated outside the Beehive Inn since 1830.
Grantham Guildhall on St Peter's Hill is now the Guildhall Arts Centre. Edith Smith Way is a road next to the Arts Centre; it is named after England's first policewoman. Mary Allen and Ellen F. Harburn reported for duty on 27 November 1914. Mary Allen was a former suffragette and had been previously arrested outside the House of Commons and later went on to be the commandant of the UK's women's police force from the 1920s up to 1940. She helped to set up women's police forces in other countries, including Germany. Edith Smith became the first female with powers of arrest in August 1915.
Sandon Road is named after Viscount Sandon, also the Earl of Harrowby. The first person with the title was Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby; a road is also named after him. He purchased Harrowby Hall in 1754. The current incumbent is Dudley Ryder, 8th Earl of Harrowby.

Sport

Football

is the local football team, currently playing in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League. The club was founded in 1874 and currently plays in the 7,500-capacity South Kesteven Sports Stadium. The ground also doubles as the town's athletics stadium, next to the Grantham Meres Leisure Centre on Trent Road.
Harrowby United F.C. based at Dickens Road, near the Church of the Ascension, are in the UCL Division One league.

Rugby Union

Kesteven Rugby Football Club was founded in 1947 and plays at Woodnook, off the B6403. The club fields two men's teams, a ladies XV and many junior sides.

Hockey

Grantham Hockey Club, which fielded men's and women's team in league hockey, played at the Meres Leisure Centre, on an astro-turf pitch once situated directly behind the football stadium. In 2011, the men ended a long spell in the Midlands League, moving to the East League, successfully earning promotion to Division 5. Their story is documented in 1,309 Days Later, the title a reference to a no-win spell between 2006 and 2009.

Bowls

Grantham bowls players have represented the indoor and outdoor clubs within county and national competitions. Indoor club players Martin Pulling, Dion Auckland, Ian Johnson, and former England U25 player Mathew Orrey, have played for the England squad.

Table tennis

In 1993 and 1994 international team matches were held in Grantham, at the South Kesteven Table Tennis Centre, which was opened in January 1992 by Johnny Leach. Grantham College have a Table Tennis Academy.

Twinning

Armed forces and police